Op-ed: When will iPhone 5 users stop seeing black bars on their apps?

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The iPhone 5 has been out for nearly two months now. But judging by the overall app landscape, you'd hardly know it has been seven weeks (or eight, if you start counting at the date of the announcement) since the iPhone 5 made its debut. While some apps have been updated to take advantage of the iPhone 5's larger screen, many more have not.

What's the holdup? That's the question we've found ourselves asking here at the Ars Orbiting HQ. Whether we use the iPhone 5 because it's directly connected to our jobs (ahem) or because it's what works best in our personal lives, we've all run into apps that are clearly still formatted for the smaller iPhone 4/4S screen, with black bars at the top and bottom. And these aren't little, no-name apps either—there are some major companies, firms with wildly popular applications, that have yet to update their apps for the iPhone 5. [Editor's Note: most of the applications have received other maintenance updates, and several of them new features. But no iPhone 5 screen support. This is not a list of "dead" apps.]

Who are we talking about? There are a couple of software giants: Google—which mysteriously has updated its Gmail and Chrome apps, but not Latitude, Translate, or Voice—and Microsoft, with its Bing app. There are also the airlines, like American Airlines, FlyDelta, and jetBlue, which have yet to update their apps for the larger screen, or Amtrak for train enthusiasts like our Deputy Editor Nate Anderson.

And then there are the news organizations: BBC News, NPR News, ESPN Scorecenter, Zite, and News.me (though we're not holding our breath for that last one). And the ones that help us get things done every day, like Peapod, American Express, Zipcar, GrubHub, TaxiMagic, Uber, eTrade, and Withings. Some major communications apps have yet to be updated, like Skype and AIM.

Gamers don't appear to be particularly high on the update priority list either. Scramble, Matching,Plants vs. Zombies, the original AngryBirds, FruitNinja, Civ Revolution, Tetris, Battleship, Catapult King, Fieldrunners,Fieldrunners 2, Modern War, Crime City, and Kingdom Age were all named by Ars staffers as apps that don't have iPhone 5 versions yet.

And there are plenty more where those came from.

But why?

No one is required to issue an update just for our edification—that's the whole benefit to iOS 6 being able to run apps made for iPhone 4/4S on an iPhone 5's screen. But the time it has taken for these (and other) apps to see an update for Apple's latest iPhone is beginning to drag out, and it makes it seem like app makers don't care as much about the iPhone as they once did—at least from an end-user's point of view.

One thing we do know is that Apple's review process doesn't appear to be holding things back: we're told by several developers that the wait time on the iOS App Store is roughly a week or less right now. Those six to seven other weeks are still unaccounted for.

But there are a number of other theories floating around about the holdup. One developer speculated that companies might be holding onto their iPhone 5-formatted apps for a planned feature update sometime in the future—that is, maybe Google is planning to add some mind-blowing new features to its Voice app, and it will update the app for the iPhone 5 when that release is finally out.

Another developer suggested that some app makers might be fearful of making their existing app ratings and reviews invisible by issuing a brand new update for iPhone 5. Apple's App Store reviews system now makes a point of only showing you reviews for the most current version of the app as a default, so if a particular app has some phenomenal reviews for an older version, the developer may be hesitant to start "anew" with a fresh slate.

This plays into the next reason speculated by some of our developer sources: "laziness and a lack of pride." Could it be that some of these app makers just don't feel the need to rush to get their apps up-to-speed on the latest iPhone, and they don't care enough about their work to want to do so quickly? That frame of mind undoubtedly plagues many of the thousands of apps on the App Store, though we would be disappointed to learn that the companies behind some of the bigger apps feel that way about their end-user experiences.

Feeling a little stale

Whatever reason companies have for holding off on updating their apps for the iPhone 5, the end result is that the App Store is beginning to feel a bit stale for longtime and new users alike. Imagine being one of the 5 million people who bought an iPhone 5 over its launch weekend in September and being brand new to the platform: how would you feel if half the apps you tried to download weren't made with your device in mind?

Even though it's not directly Apple's fault, it is Apple's problem. After all, Apple benefits from the perception that it has the hottest mobile platform on both the developer and the user side. Without more current updates for the most recent devices, it looks from the outside like iOS as a platform is slowing down. Where is the enthusiasm to get things up to date?

I reached out to Apple for comment on this phenomenon but received no response by publication time.

To be fair, there are plenty of developers who have updated their apps to be more friendly to the iPhone 5's elongated screen. Facebook, Alien Blue, Kindle, Nest, Instagram, Instapaper, Tripit, The Weather Channel, Pandora, Spotify, Chase… all these apps and more have been updated to take advantage of the larger screen, and their users have noticed.

So to you developers who are dragging your feet, where's the love for the iPhone 5?

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Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui

132 Reader Comments

All the iPhone 5 app updates are on my iPhone. Well over 100 of them so far and more daily. I also suspect that some of the holdout apps are simply addressing it with their next regular update for other reasons. Why update strictly for iPhone 5 goodness? (sometimes it's needed, but not always)

The market will correct itself, particularly if the app maker is trying to protect the visibility of their current good reviews. One thing you can be sure of is that iphone 5 users can and will spam negative reviews on good apps that aren't "optimised for iPhone 5" leading to the app maker eventually being pressed to release a new version.

Is the latest version of WPtouch updated to support the iPhone 5? It's a popular WP plugin that detects mobile devices and automatically renders them in a single column.

These web sites appear normally when accessed through Safari, but when saved as an iPhone home screen and tapped, they have black bars across the top and bottom due to being hard coded for 960x640.

Of all things a plugin for a content-oriented website that doesn't just try to optimize the layout for some different devices and instead specifically targets one device and display (even down to the screen height) is just silly. Should be easy to fix, though. Any website using WP that doesn't install that fix then I wouldn't want to use anyway ;-)

Maybe if you had made your iPhone game with a correct ratio from the beginning, it would have been easier to adapt it now? No iPhone has used 4:3 ratio, just so you know ;-)

And yes, joking! I know you were thinking about the iPad ratio and simply mixed them up!

Well, considering it IS an iPad app, and not an iPhone app, I wasn't getting anything mixed up. I was just using that as an illustration that the problem isn't always as easy as "recompile for the new size".

Do you really care if the Amtrak app uses 200 fewer pixels and has black bars on the top/bottom? Are those 200 pixels really going to allow Amtrak to do something that will fundamentally change the value proposition of the app?

As the person who uses this app constantly, yes, yes I would like to see more train schedules, more information. That is the entire point of the taller screen.

I'm an iOS developer and because of phone contract obligations I wasn't able to get an iPhone 5 right away and I don't like releasing updates on hardware I haven't physically tested. I did release an update based on the simulators and borrowing my friend's phone for a bit.

My big assumption is that people are just afraid to touch delicate code that they haven't been supporting. Even if an app was updated for the retina display with the iPhone 4 they only had to add a second set of images to their project but now they are forced to actually change display logic. That and making a big update is dangerous when there are a lot of active users so smart developers take their time.

I know that our company hasn't released new versions because iOS 6.0 SDK forces you to drop support for devices running less than iOS 4.3 ( iPhone 3, iPods ). It's quite a commitment to tell a significant (20%) of your user base that they are no longer a concern of yours.

Update. Seriously. You are going to have to leave people behind to get new features no matter what. If you still have a iPhone 3 you have no business crying that your XYZ app dropped support for you. You can not support everything forever.

For me and everyone I know that had the iPhone 3 could not wait to gut it leading up to the iPhone 4 because of how slow the thing was.

How much will this even matter? I can understand some apps mightn't need to have added any features that depend on a higher iOS version than 3.0. What is astonishing is the idea that existing customers expect upgrades to a long-ago purchased app, or that the relatively few owners of fairly old iPhones will go looking for your app but be frustrated because you can't support them. At some point, people don't upgrade their hardware because it does everything they want it to do, including run the list of apps with the exact features that they've grown comfortable with.

I'm with the people thinking there isnt enough incentive because of the user base. iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, and 4S (and iPod Touches) must total up to a huge majority of total users. Maybe I'm the odd duck but I haven't been motivated to upgrade my 4 yet, even though I'm off contract and can afford to.

You drop my app as a default (oh, and broke the contract on the map app too), but you...... the company that is trying to crush my product, Android.... want me to make my app specific to your latest toy? Why should I cooperate with you? Why should I do jack to support your company? You don't play nice with others, but you want others to play nice with you? Lolololololololololol......

Those who don't cooperate with others should not expect cooperation in return.

Edit: why downrate? All I'm saying is look at it from another perspective other than your own. You have two companies that are a bit at odds with each other, and one has made moves to push out the other. What do you honestly expect the other to do?

I don't think Google is idiotic enough to leave millions of iOS-using eyeballs on the table out of nerdy spite when their money comes from user data and advertising.

apple should have added a little bit of screen around the whole phone to keep the same aspect ratio.

instead they added a wierd ratio that you can't automatically resize an old app to. if they had just simply made the phone bigger, people would have liked it more, and the apps would have looked normal.

I personally have a hard time caring, aside from the "gotta have an updated app" impulse. When the iPhone 4 came out with its Retina display, suddenly all of my 3rd party apps looked atrocious next to the crisp, clean Apple UI and apps. I cringed when I had to look at them, and I wanted them updated as fast as possible.

With this? I don't really notice the bars at the top and bottom of the screen when an app is "letterboxed," nor does the extra real estate used by an iPhone 5 friendly app register with me unless I stop to think about it.

You drop my app as a default (oh, and broke the contract on the map app too)…What do you honestly expect the other to do?

Beats me how you'll understand anything if you spout “facts” such as “breaking” a contract without any shred of evidence that Apple did anything of the sort.

Lots of us have an employment contract that includes the employer's right to end it on the least whim, and the employees can leave at any time, too. Two weeks' or more notice might be nice, but is not in the contract.

Go ahead and cite the confidential contract to prove you're not just BS'ing us. I personally think it'd be fascinating to read, in equal proportion to the fact that you've never seen a word of it.

Yes, as many other people have noted here, there are real trade-offs you need to consider when deciding to devote limited resources to app development for this situation. Jacqui, as Senior Apple Editor I would think you would have put more thought into this before posting random office theories.

Any "major company" doing apps has a feature list they would like to implement - a roadmap they are working against for upcoming major and minor releases. If doing things well, this is a list of meaningful improvements based on what users are asking/hoping for and what the company wants to provide as a better app/product/service. Ideally it would be possible to focus only on this and devote all resources only to this. Unfortunately there are always things to fix, tweak, and update to keep things working and current.

An update for iPhone 5 screen size is really a tough call. As already pointed out in comments:1. Updating to iPhone 5 assets for an app does not cover all other iPhones: Apps need to have BOTH iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 assets to cover all iPhones. If you have an app that is universal for iPad and iPhone then you need to add all those assets for all iOS devices. It creates app bloat quickly and you need to manage all those assets just to sustain the app going forward.2. Updating for iPhone 5 based on user base doesn't compute of course, as it's the minority of users right now. What's the point of updating right away for the minority set of users?3. Updating for the new screen size really only makes sense if you take advantage of the new real estate. If you are simply stretching to fill the space then why bother? Is that the iPhone 5 update you are dying to have so quickly - just to remove the letterbox? Any company doing development well will consider how their apps could functionally benefit from the new screen size, not just fill pixels.

The new iPhone 5 screen size makes sense for Apple to do. But I doubt many companies were thinking they needed a bit taller screen to make their app better. So just updating to stretch the screen is a waste of valuable resources that should be spent on meaningful updates. I think companies are sorting what future version they have planned that will be the right moment to go to the larger screen, but still balancing that with the impact on the app size to be reverse-compatible.

So not a trivial decision to make and certainly not about dragging feet. That's just an amateur response. Please in the future be a bit more mature about investigating and being thoughtful before writing posts that show how little effort is behind them.

Frankly, I think this is expected. From the sales record and the fact that iPhone is no longer the best selling phone, I think it is pretty safe to say that iPhone era is over and iPhone is yesterday's news. You can clearly see that from the attitude of the developers, and why this is surprising to anyone is beyond me.

Part of the reason I chose to never bother developing apps on iOS is because of how much more time and effort it takes to worry about scaling for different screen resolutions. I don't even have to worry about this on Android, everything is done for me (practically), so I just went that route for app development. And now I can see that I'm glad that I did. You can just chalk it up to bad design in iOS on this aspect.

Given the amount of money and equipment you need to start developing on iOS (or even to continue to into the future), and the screening process of getting your app into the App Store, and the high success of Jelly Bean on the Android side, I wouldn't be surprised if another reason that may or may not have been mentioned yet is that maybe some of these developers are just focusing more on Android development, since it's so much easier and developer-friendly. Could be, maybe not. But I'm betting this is true for a lot of cases.

This is just one way to get around the multi-resolution devices. This method should work with Android, Windows Phone, etc as well, but again, you'd need to find a way to get resolutions and object sizes (through their own implementation of frames).

Actually on Android you don't even need to do that. You can just tell the app to "align View A to the bottom of the screen with a 20dp margin (20dp would be 15-40 pixels depending on screen pixel density), and put View B between the top of the screen and View B, with a margin of 10dp between both of them. And it'll work on 2.8" screens or 10.1" ones. Again, no need to do your own math or even write any code for this to work. Of course sometimes you'd still want to have different versions of layout depending on screen size/pixel density. But if you do it intelligently that can be kept to a minimum.

A recent ui toolkit should be able to stretch to a slightly longer screen for most applications. Android can, xmla can hell even flex can.

So can Cocoa.

It's just that "most applications" is not good enough. Someone has to check that it actually works like it is supposed to. That's why Apple requires developers to at least add an appropriate splash screen, which indicates to the OS that the application is actually capable of handling this resolution.

It's actually a bit ridiculous that this is needed at all. A recent ui toolkit should be able to stretch to a slightly longer screen for most applications. Android can, xmla can hell even flex can.

iOS most certainly can. You have to include a longer version of the launch image to indicate that you want it to go ahead and do that. Took me one minute. It just doesn't do it by default in case that isn't what you want.

In other news, it took two years before everyone had retina art. For the iPad, many apps still don't. A small waits nothing new.

The great part about this story is that every visible app on the iPhone home screen in the picture at the top of the article is upgraded to support the iPhone 5's taller screen with the definite exception of the Find Gluten Free app and the potential exception of the Alice app I wasn't able to identify. Seems to largely contradict the entire premise of the story.

Frankly, I think this is expected. From the sales record and the fact that iPhone is no longer the best selling phone, I think it is pretty safe to say that iPhone era is over and iPhone is yesterday's news. You can clearly see that from the attitude of the developers, and why this is surprising to anyone is beyond me.

You read this a lot. Which is kind of surprising, because people are basically making the argument, whether they realize it or not, that it took this long and was this hard for any Android phone, even the Samsung Galaxy S3, to unseat an obsolete iPhone 4S from the top sales spot.

I'm not sure what to do with our game, stretching the 2d art to fit the iPhone 5 resolution is going to look dodgy, but redoing the artwork is going to not only add bloat to our app but also change the fundamental game mechanics. In a game like Fruit Ninja for instance players using the iPhone 5 are going to have a screen real estate advantage, FPS and racing games will also have extra field of view. The thought that some players will have an unfair advantage as they have the latest device is a slippery slope I'm not prepared to risk. We thought of having separate leaderboards or releasing an iPhone 5 only version of our game..but Apple does not support this approach. So leave sleeping dogs lie, at least until most of our customers have the newer screen resolution.

Apple is bogged down with reviewing updates, and many people who have submitted updates have yet to have their update be approved.

Initially this wasn't a problem. We submitted an update a couple weeks after the iPhone 5 release and it went as quickly as usual. But there have been some rumors that things have been slowing down recently, perhaps in a pre-holiday rush. We've got two submissions pending that'll be reaching the usual review time this week, so we'll see how it goes.

A friend of mine works for a software company that makes a fairly popular app for many platforms. The last updates of their iOS version have been queued for review for several months now, to their annoyance.

(Apologies for the vagueness; I'm not sure if I'm allowed to be specific.)

If you look at pretty much all modern PC games now, you'll find they are pretty universally resolution agnostic, so why is it such a big problem for mobile developers to develop with resolution agnosticism in mind?

We are one of these developers you are referring to. It's a question of the associated (re-)design effort, if you have apps that have custom graphics.

A simple example: we have a barcode reader app that we updated for the iPhone5: http://www.ikangai.com/apps/qlauncher/ we had to redesign every screen and basically create a new interface that works on 3GS, iPhone4(S) and iPhone5. Our app is small (but beautiful :-)) and had only a couple of screens.

Nevertheless, it took us almost two weeks to complete the work on the redesign of the app. The review process was also longer than normal (two weeks)... et voilá there you have it: four weeks before your iPhone5 app becomes available on iTunes. Did we mention that we implemented the iPhone5 version without having a device to test it, and we simply crossed or fingers that the simulator does a good job (what it did) in simulating the actual iPhone5?

And one more thing: we developers heard about the new iPhone5 screen size the moment everybody else did, so we had no time to prepare for the new screen size. We started to work as soon as the developer software was available for us.

We guess, users just need to be patient, iPhone5 apps will arrive eventually, but it will take several months into 2013 before a majority of apps will take advantage of the additional real estate on the iPhone5 screen.

Apps need to keep attracting users with feature upgrades, but in the end, iPhone 5 support is a bullet point on a feature list for most. After the next iPhone with the same resolution, it will improve, by then the 3GS will be a thing of the past.

One unfortunate side effect of the new resolution is that some updated apps just use that new found space for iAds. It seems like the perfect size to free up space in your app by upgrading it to support iPhone 5 and then install an ad in there. Users still gain some extra real estate I suppose.

So you're essentially crying because MICROSOFT and GOOGLE didn't update their applications to support Iphone 5???? Also, a 3 year old game? Laughable, also laughable, all the idiots commenting about this even if they can't write a Hello World application without it outputting something like Hellowrld and crashing.